From Modest Beginnings to a Vibrant State

History:
Re-Birth of a Nation

The birthplace of the Jewish people is the Land of Israel (Eretz Yisrael).
There, a significant part of the nation’s long history was enacted, of which
the first thousand years are recorded in the Bible; there, it’s cultural, Remember the days of old,
religious, and national identity was formed; and there, its physical consider the years of many
presence has been maintained through the centuries, even after the generations...
majority was forced into exile. During the many years of dispersion, the
Jewish people never severed nor forgot its bond with the Land. With
(Deuteronomy 32:7)
the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, Jewish independence,
lost 2,000 years earlier, was renewed.

Israel
The Jewish Homeland From Biblical Days
Written by Professor Joshua Schwartz

What makes a “homeland”? Is it the territory that binds an

ethnic group together, a geographic entity possessing a long
association with that ethnic group, perhaps its “country
of origin” in which its national identity was born? This
is how we usually think today of “Jewish homeland”: the
term is often synonymous with “Jewish State,” “Homeland
of the Jewish People,” “National Home for the Jewish
People” and even State of Israel. These concepts, however,
are modern and relate mostly to modern perceptions of
national identity and geography. Perceptions change and, The story of Israel begins not in Israel but in Mesopotamia above: Jersualem’s

thus, so, theoretically, might homelands. Thus, a Jewish “beyond the River” (Euphrates). God Himself, however, Old City contains
Zachariah’s Tomb and
homeland might be planned or established in Uganda, called us out to come to Canaan, the Land of Israel other ancient burials in
Argentina, Birobidzhan, or a fictional one might be posited (Joshua 24:2-4). The Book of Genesis provides more the Kidron Valley. The
even in Alaska. However, what would make these a Jewish details: the saga of the Patriarch Abram (later Abraham), Jewish cemetery of Mt. of
Olives can be seen in the
homeland and do these purported Jewish homelands of son of Terah, began in Ur of the Chaldeans in southern
re-birth of a nation
background.
past and fiction fit the bill? Mesopotamia. Terah took his family as far as Haran
in northern Mesopotamia (Genesis 11: 27-32). God
©  ISRAEL MINISTRY OF TOURISM

While it is not politically correct today to seek the then instructed Abram to go “to the land which I will WEB
answer to this question in the Bible or in Jewish show you,” and this land was Canaan, the Land of Israel RESOURCEs:
religious tradition, it is exactly this Jewish literature (Genesis 12:1-5). This land became the “Promised Land,” Israel Antiquities
that tells us “who are we” and “how we got there “ and promised as an everlasting possession to the descendants Authority:
establishes the iron-clad bond between the People of of Abraham, “from the River of Egypt as far as the great www.israntique.org.il
Israel and the Land of Israel. river the Euphrates” (Genesis 15: 18-21). God renewed
➤
15
 ISRAEL AT 60

Joshua
this pact with Isaac (Genesis 26:3), Jacob (Genesis 28:13) Transjordan, especially the eastern Jordan Valley all the
Schwartz
and Moses (Exodus 6:4). The basic perception is that the way to the south of the Dead Sea, returning westward
Jews constitute a nation and their proper or legitimate to its point of origin. Ironically, this is what the Rabbis Joshua Schwartz
territory coincides with the land promised to or trodden mistakenly perceived to be the boundaries of Israel is Professor of
Historical-Geography
by our Biblical forefathers. during the period of the Restoration of Zion (536 BCE)
of Ancient Israel,
when some of those exiled to Babylonia returned to Israel
Director Schulman
However, while the borders of the “promised” land were to rebuild land and Temple. Center for Basic
quite extensive, the actual geographic entity in which Jewish Studies and
the People of Israel resided during Biblical times and The history of the Jews in Israel from Roman times and Director, Ingeborg
afterwards was somewhat more limited, although the afterwards represents the struggle of the Jewish people Rennert Center for
boundaries often changed as a result of political or to maintain their hold on their ancestral homeland in Jerusalem Studies,
military developments and thus the de facto “homeland” the face of political, economic and, at times, religious Bar-Ilan University,
changed from time to time. When God showed Moses challenges. Rabbinic law, in Israel emphasized the Ramat-Gan, Israel.
the Land of Israel from Mount Nebo across the Jordan, religious importance of remaining in and living in Ingeborg Rennert Center
he showed him Gilead as far as Dan in the north, the Israel, even in the face of difficulties and in spite of for Jerusalem Studies,
(future) lands of Naphtali, Ephraim, Manasseh, Judah, these difficulties. It became a transgression to leave, Bar-Ilan University:
the Negev, and the Plain in the Valley of Jericho, as except under special circumstances. Diaspora Rabbis, www.biu.ac.il/JS/rennert/
far as Zoar in the south (Deuteronomy 31:1-3). Other often in the face of their own internal problems, were below: Maps of the
boundaries are mentioned in Deuteronomy (1:7, 11:24), sometimes less enthusiastic about the need to “make Kingdoms of David
in Joshua and in Ezekiel (47:15-20). David effectively aliyah” and some even claimed that a precipitous and Solomon:
ruled from Dan to Beer-Sheba (2 Samuel 14:2) and return to the “Jewish homeland” violated the “Divine 1077 - 997 BCE.
“Judah and Israel lived in safety, every man under his punishment” for which the Jews had been exiled to King David ruled Israel
vine and his fig tree, from Dan even to Beer-Sheba, all begin with. Better, in their view, to wait for the Messiah from 990 BCE to 968
BCE; and his son Solomon
the days of Solomon” (1 Kings 5:5). and the messianic homeland. ruled after him until 928
BCE. David enlarged his
Biblical reality and perceptions were translated by The tension continues until today. “Homeland” Israel may kingdom and brought it
to the peak of political
the Rabbis into law (halakhah). The Rabbis had little be for the Jewish People, but there is not agreement as and military power.
interest in historical boundaries from this or that period to how and when aspirations should be translated into Solomon “ruled over
of Jewish sovereignty, whether from Biblical times, the practical imperatives. Some have done so; many more have all the kingdoms west
Hasmonean state or Herodian kingdom, the latter two not. Are Jews obligated to settle in the Land of Israel, the of the Euphrates River
from Tiphsah to Gaza; he
from Second Temple times. Similarly, messianic period Jewish homeland? Few would respond with a blanket no. was at peace with all his
boundaries, i.e. the extensive boundaries promised Many would answer: “timing is everything”. ◆ neighbors” (I Kings, 4:24).
to the Patriarchs, were a matter for the messianic
period. Halakhic boundaries are necessary in order

©  KORET PRODUCTIONS, COURTESY OF ISRAEL MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS

to delineate those areas in which Jews were required
to observe agricultural regulations such as tithing or
the restrictions of the Sabbatical year, the “halakhic
homeland” for the Rabbis.

These boundaries are carefully defined in Tosefta Sheviit

4:11 (and parallels) and were copied in full in an ancient
synagogue inscription at Rehov, south of modern-day
Beth Shean. While these boundaries are more modest
than those of the “promised land”, they contain a great
expanse of territory. From modern-day Raphia (other
history

readings; Ascalon) the boundary runs north to Acre.

From there the line runs north-northeast including
parts of southern Lebanon, the Golan and parts of

16
 GUARDIANS OF ISRAEL
Throughout Israel’s history, Magen David Adom has served her people as the
government mandated ambulance and emergency medical first response service,
providing disaster relief and blood services. MDA is “behind every headline,” always
vigilant, responding to every call and dispatching its fleet of more than 700 emergency
vehicles to care for hundreds of thousands of patients every year.
On this, Israel’s 60th anniversary, American Friends of Magen David Adom also
marks our 68th year of supporting the heroic men and women of Magen David Adom.
For 78 years, MDA has been there for Israel’s people, in good times and bad, 24 hours a
day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.
With your support, American Friends of Magen David Adom builds and renovates
MDA Stations and contributes urgently needed vehicles, paramedic training,
communications equipment, medications and medical equipment, as well as flak
jackets, helmets and security for our facilities.
Yesterday, today and tomorrow, American Friends of Magen David Adom is
there to “Save Lives in Israel.”


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 ISRAEL AT 60

successor and son, King Solomon, built the First Temple eli hertz
Jerusalem there, according to the Bible, as a holy place to worship the Eli Hertz, a recognized
Almighty. Unfortunately, history would not be kind to the pioneer in the
One Nation’s Capital Throughout History
Jewish people. Four hundred ten years after King Solomon personal computer
Written by Eli Hertz completed construction of Jerusalem, the Babylonians industry, was the
(early ancestors to today’s Iraqis) seized and destroyed Founder, CEO and
Jerusalem and the Jewish people are so intertwined that the city, forcing the Jews into exile. Fifty years later, the President of Hertz
telling the history of one is telling the history of the other. Jews, or Israelites as they were called, were permitted to Technology Group.
For more than 3,000 years, Jerusalem has played a central return after Persia (present-day Iran) conquered Babylon. Hertz has been
role in the history of the Jews, culturally, politically, and The Jews’ first order of business was to reclaim Jerusalem cited in the United
State Congressional
spiritually, a role first documented in the Scriptures. All as their capital and rebuild the Holy Temple, recorded in
Record by many
through the 2,000 years of the Diaspora, Jews have called history as the Second Temple.
Representatives. He
Jerusalem their ancestral home. This sharply contrasts the is also the publisher
relationship between Jerusalem and the new Islamists who Jerusalem was more than the Jewish kingdom’s political and sponsor of books
artificially inflate Islam’s links to Jerusalem. capital. It was a spiritual beacon. During the First and and articles regarding
Second Temple periods, Jews throughout the kingdom Israel and the Arab-
The Arab rulers who controlled Jerusalem through the would travel to Jerusalem three times yearly for the Israeli conflict. A
1950s and 1960s demonstrated no religious tolerance pilgrimages of the Jewish holy days of Sukkot, Passover, new volume on the
in a city that gave birth and Shavuot, until the Arab-Israeli Conflict:
to two major Western “Pray for the peace of Roman Empire destroyed Negotiating Over
Quicksand – A Realistic
religions. That changed
after the Six-Day War in
Jerusalem; they that love the Second Te mple in
70 CE and ended Jewish Look at the Arab-Israeli
1967, when Israel regained thee shall prosper...” sovereignty over Jerusalem
Conflict, is scheduled
for release shortly.
control of the whole city. Psalm 122:6 for the next 2,000 years.
Symbolica l ly, one of Despite that fate, Jews never
Israel’s first steps was to officially recognize and respect relinquished their bond to Jerusalem or, for that matter,
all religious interests in Jerusalem. But the war for control to Eretz Yisrael, the Land of Israel.
of Jerusalem and its religious sites is not over.
No matter where Jews lived throughout the world for
Palestinian terrorism has targeted Jerusalem particularly those two millennia, their thoughts and prayers were
in an attempt to regain control of the city from Israel. directed toward Jerusalem. Even today, whether in Israel,
The result is that they have turned Jerusalem, literally the the United States or anywhere else, Jewish ritual practice,
left: The tomb of King
City of Peace, into a bloody battleground and have thus holiday celebration and lifecycle events include recognition David is now located on
forfeited their claim to share in the city’s destiny. of Jerusalem as a core element of the Jewish experience. Mount Zion in Jerusalem.
opposite page:
Jerusalem’s Jewish Link: Historic, Religious, Political
left: Present day
Jerusalem, wrote historian Sir Martin Gilbert, is not a
Jerusalem at night. It
‘mere’ city. “It holds the central spiritual and physical place is the Capital of Israel
in the history of the Jews as a people.” and the holy city for
the three monotheistic
religions: Judaism,
For more than 3,000 years, the Jewish people have looked Christianity
to Jerusalem as their spiritual, political, and historical and Islam.
©  ISRAEL MINISTRY OF TOURISM

capital, even when they did not physically rule over the right: Jewish Quarter
city. Throughout its long history, Jerusalem has served, in the Old City of
and still serves, as the political capital of only one nation Jerusalem. Tourists
history

– the one belonging to the Jews. Its prominence in Jewish stroll through Hurva
Square near the Hurva
history began in 1004 BCE, when King David declared Synagogue before
the city the capital of the first Jewish kingdom. David’s reconstruction.

18
 From Modest Beginnings to a Vibrant State

Consider the Following: JERUSALEM’S POPULATION

•  Jews in prayer always turn toward Jerusalem. 
•  Arks (the sacred chests) that hold Torah scrolls Year Jews Muslims Christians Total
in synagogues throughout the world face Jerusalem.  1844 7,120 5,000 3,390 15,510
•  Jews end Passover Seders each year with the words: “Next
year in Jerusalem”; the same words are pronounced at the 1876 12,000 7,560 5,470 25,030
end of Yom Kippur, the most solemn day of the Jewish year. 
1896 28,112 8,560 8,748 45,420
•  A three-week moratorium on weddings in the summer
recalls the breaching of the walls of Jerusalem by the 1922 33,971 13,411 4,699 52,081
Babylonian army in 586 BCE. That period culminates
1931 51,222 19,894 19,335 90,451
in a special day of mourning – Tisha B’Av (the 9th
day of the Hebrew month Av) – commemorating the 1948 100,000 40,000 25,000 165,000
destruction of both the First and Second Temples. 
•  Jewish wedding ceremonies – joyous occasions, are 1967 195,700 54,963 12,646 263,309
marked by sorrow over the loss of Jerusalem. The groom 1987 340,000 121,000 14,000 475,000
recites a biblical verse from the Babylonian Exile: “If I
forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her 1990 378,200 131,800 14,400 524,000
cunning,”4 and breaks a glass in commemoration of the
2005 582,700 240,900 15,700 839,300
destruction of the Temples.

Even body language, often said to tell volumes about Even when others controlled Jerusalem, Jews maintained Editor’s Note: Myths

a person, ref lects the importance of Jerusalem to Jews a physical presence in the city, despite being persecuted and Facts, Inc. is
devoted to research
as a people and, arguably, the lower priority the city and impoverished. Before the advent of modern Zionism and publication of
holds for Muslims: in the 1880s, Jews were moved by a form of religious information regarding
©  DR. MITCHELL BARD, COURTESY OF MYTHS & FACTS ONLINE, 2008; ©  VOJTECH/SHUTTERSTOCK; ©  ISRAEL MINISTRY OF TOURISM

Zionism to live in the Holy Land, settling particularly U.S. interests in the
world and particularly in
•  W hen Jews pray they face Jer usa le m; in in four holy cities: Safed, Tiberias, Hebron, and most
the Middle East. Point of
Jerusalem Israelis pray facing the Temple Mount.  importantly – Jerusalem. ◆ clarification: This Web
•  When Muslims pray, they face Mecca; in site is not related to
Jerusalem Muslims pray with their backs to the city.  the publication “Myths
and Facts” referred to
•  Even at burial, a Muslim face, is turned toward Mecca. after the following chart,
which is a separate
Finally, consider the number of times ‘Jerusalem’ is and independent hard
copy and web-based
mentioned in the two religions’ holy books: publication written by
Dr. Mitchell Bard as part
•  The Old Testament mentions ‘Jerusalem’ 349 times. of the Jewish Virtual
Library site.
Zion, another name for ‘Jerusalem,’ is mentioned 108 times. 
•  The Quran never mentions Jerusalem – not even once.

WEB
RESOURCEs:
The complete re-birth of a nation
version of this
article (including
footnotes) can be
found at:
www.mythsandfacts.
com/Conflict/3/
Jerusalem.pdf

19
 ISRAEL AT 60
Tel Aviv
The First Jewish City of Modern Times Turns 100
Written by Ron Huldai, Mayor of Tel Aviv – Yafo
Wenn ihr wollt, ist es kein Märchen - “If you will it, it is
no dream”.
These words were written by Benjamin Theodore Herzl, a
liberal socialist, who took his first steps toward a Zionist
movement in the summer of 1895 by marketing the idea
of a Jewish State. Such a state would be the solution to the
continuous persecution of the Jews throughout the world.
In early 1896, Herzl presented his solution to the public
by publishing a book appropriately titled, “The Jewish
State.” The book presented Herzl’s vision, including the
characteristics of his imagined Jewish state, together with
the means in which to make his vision come true.
In the book, Herzl expressed his ambition to establish an
exemplary land for the Jewish people built upon a tolerant,
pluralistic, and progressive society. Interestingly enough,
the economic capital of the future state is not Jerusalem (the
religious and spiritual center of the land), but a new city—
one with elaborately described social, cultural, industrial,
technological, economic, demographic and urban spheres.
At the end of the book, Herzl writes: “Dream and practice
are not as different as believed, because all human practices
are based on dreams.” Herzl’s dream city would soon
arise—and become the city of Tel Aviv.
In reality, the City of Tel Aviv was originally established as
a neighborhood of Jaffa and not as a separate entity. Three
milestones mark its establishment:
The first took place in 1906. It was during this year
that a group of Jews from Jaffa rose against the difficult
living conditions in the city – crowdedness, filth and
especially the Turkish law obligating Jaffa’s Jews to change
apartments every year.
The publication of Herzl’s book caused great excitement
history
among Jaffa’s residents and his visionary idea was adopted
with the establishment of a new modern neighborhood
outside of Jaffa using western European neighborhoods
20
above: Tel Aviv’s original
municipality.
left: The “Seashell
Lottery.” The founders of
Tel Aviv aimed to build a
new neighborhood that
would be independent of
as its model. The new neighborhood would offer a new Yafo. Their vision was a
quality of life in the Land of Israel. There would be homes city designed along the
with vegetable gardens and rows of flowers, playgrounds for lines of the Garden City
Movement, headed by
children, street lights and running water in the homes.
the British city planner
Sir Ebenezer Howard.
The second milestone for the city’s development came They had in mind a green
in April 1909. A “Seashell Lottery” was held during and spacious city, the
very opposite of the
the Passover holiday in which plots of land in the new urban squalor of Yafo.
neighborhood were divided among the founding families.
below: A popular pub-
60 founding families–approximately 200 men, women restaurant in downtown
and children – gathered in a sandy, desolate area not far Tel Aviv serves couscous.
from the seashore. Akiva Weiss, chairman of the new
neighborhood, was responsible for the lottery ceremony
of the first 60 plots. He collected 60 white and 60 gray
seashells. Weiss wrote the names of the families that
purchased plots on the white seashells and the number of
each plot on the gray seashells. He placed the seashells in
©  TEL AVIV FOUNDATION; ©  ISRAEL MINISTRY OF TOURISM
two separate hats and a boy and girl took out one gray and
one white seashell from the respective hats. In this way, a
plot of land was granted to each family. This lottery with
seashells, thought Weiss, would symbolize the creation of
a new neighborhood by the seashore.
The third milestone in the development of Tel Aviv
would fall during June 1909 when the corner stone of
the first home in the new neighborhood was laid. The
neighborhood well was also dug on this day and work on
the new neighborhood began.
➤
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 ISRAEL AT 60
This period of early development led into what is called
Israel’s Second Aliyah-- made famous by the agricultural
settlements established in the country by pioneers and
mainly by the establishment of kibbutzim. As one can
imagine, the construction of a new urban neighborhood
was met with criticism and even condemnation by these
agriculturally-inspired pioneers. They objected to the
establishment of an urban bourgeois neighborhood based
neither on agricultural work, nor communality.
The neighborhood residents claimed in their defense that
“ just as the city needs Jewish settlements and villages,
villages need a Hebrew city to centralize trade and industry
so we don’t have to depend on others.” And so, growth of
this urban center continued.
The new neighborhood was called Tel Aviv. Zionist
leader Nachum Sokolov, translated Herzl’s Zionist novel
Altneuland (“Old-New Land”) into Hebrew under the
symbolic title Tel-Aviv (tel meaning a hill of ruins, and
aviv meaning spring), and thus inspired the name for the
first Jewish city in modern Erez Israel.
At the outbreak of the First World War, Tel Aviv had
only 140 houses and during the war its development was
curtailed as the Turkish authorities temporarily expelled
its residents together with Jaffa’s Jewish residents. Only
when Great Britain conquered the land in 1917 and the
British Mandate began did the residents of Tel Aviv return.
Progress on the city continued after the war.
Beginning in 1921, the city developed at a startling pace.
That year, Jaffa’s Arabs rioted in the city and 47 Jews were
murdered. In the wake of this violence, many Jews left Jaffa
for Tel Aviv, increasing the population of Tel Aviv from
2,000 in 1920 to 34,000 by 1925.
In 1925, the city symbol was designed with a lighthouse at
the center and written “Again will I build thee, and thou
history
22
shalt be built” from the Biblical passage: “Again will I build
thee, and thou shalt be built, O virgin of Israel; again shalt
thou be adorned with thy tablets, and shalt go forth in the
dances of them that make merry.”
The Fourth and Fifth Aliyah (1924 -1939), during which
the Nazis rose to power in Germany, saw an influx of
immigrants to Tel Aviv and vast development of the city.
It was during this period that the city began to develop its
bourgeois – bon vivant character.
Tel Aviv hosted the first movie theater and “casino” in Israel.
The “casino” was not for gambling, but was rather a café
on the seashore established to strengthen the city’s night
life. The casino and movie theater contributed significantly
to cultural life in Tel Aviv’s early years. By 1936, Tel Aviv
had become the largest city in the country, the center for
agricultural produce, trade, and marketing, as well as for
light industry and workshops. The city was also the Jewish
settlement’s public, economic and cultural services center.
In the wake of the 1936–39 Arab rioting, a local port
independent of Jaffa was built in 1938. It served as an impetus
to the city’s development in spite of its small size and lack of
modernity: Ships couldn’t anchor and like the Jaffa port it was
necessary to bring the goods and people by boat to shore.
Tel Aviv played a crucial part during the period of illegal
immigration to Israel and the battle against the Mandate
authorities in the 1940s. The city was the landing
port for many ships carrying illegal immigrants, the
underground arms industry was established in the city,
top: Park and hotels on
and the underground movements used the city as their the Mediterranean shore
base. With the establishment of the State of Israel, Tel in the evening.
©  ISRAEL MINISTRY OF TOURISM; ©  LOPATINSKY VLADISLAV/SHUTTERSTOCK
Aviv was the only Jewish city in the country numbering bottom: Present-day
more than 100,000 residents. Tel Aviv has a population
of just under 400,000.
On any given day, 20% of
In 1947, battles broke out again between Jews and Arabs Israel’s entire population
along the southern and eastern borders of the city. They can be found in the city.
 From Modest Beginnings to a Vibrant State

ended close to the declaration of the State of Israel with Tel Aviv is the country’s cultural capital and a center of ron huldai
the conquering of Jaffa by the Haganah and Etzel forces. music, theater and the arts. Most of Israel’s major centers In 1998, Ron Huldai
Most of Jaffa’s Arab citizens fled. for the performing arts are there, including five out of the was voted the ninth
country’s nine large theaters. elected Mayor of Tel
Not only was May 14, 1948 a date to remember for Aviv-Jaffa, the first
all of Israel, but on this day of independence, the The city houses the country’s leading educational institutions, Modern Hebrew city,
declaration was made in the old Tel Aviv museum and through its modern and centralized transportation, founded in 1909. He
on Rothschild Boulevard, which was originally the allows for easy access to the city from all of Israel. was reelected for his
private home of Mayor Dizingoff, and today is the second consecutive
Independence Hall museum. Tel Aviv’s beaches, hotels, cafes, upscale shopping and five year term in 2003
and is running for re-
secular lifestyle have made it a recognized international
election in 2008 (the
At the same time, Jerusalem was under siege and cut popular tourist destination. It also allows for a diverse
number of terms for
off from the rest of the country. As a result, Tel Aviv composition of residents, young and old, religious and mayor are unlimited).
served as the capital of the State where the government secular, students and business figures – the city has He served since 1965
offices sat and the first Knesset meetings took place in something for everyone. as a combat pilot and
the old Opera House on Herbert Samuel Street. Only was recognized as a
at the end of 1949 was Jerusalem declared the capital of In 2003, UNESCO declared Tel Aviv the “White City” - a legendary combat pilot
Israel and the country’s government institutions moved world heritage site. The White City is the nickname for during the Six-Day and
from Tel Aviv. the historic urban fabric of Tel Aviv. Many of the city’s Yom Kippur Wars. He
structures were built in the international style characterized retired from the Israeli
A number of Arab villages adjacent to the city were by its most prominent feature – the color white. Air Force after twenty-
abandoned during the War of Independence in 1948. six years with the rank
of Brigadier General.
A short time later the buildings and areas were annexed The White City is an urban fabric unique in the world and
Huldai’s vision for
to Tel Aviv. In October 1949, after the war, Jaffa was therefore possesses great historical importance. World
Tel Aviv is to further
united with Tel Aviv and became part of the city recognition of this importance is a result of the city’s more solidify the city as the
municipality. Today 20,000 Israeli Arabs live in Jaffa. than 4,000 buildings that were built in the modernistic, epicenter of pluralism
Most are descendents of the Arabs who remained in the eclectic and Bauhaus styles. and liberalism, higher
city in spite of the war. In the initial years of the country education, commerce,
Jaffa absorbed many new immigrants and today most of Today, we celebrate 60 years since the establishment of entertainment, tourism,
the city’s residents are Jewish. The building in Tel Aviv the state of Israel. Next year, Tel Aviv will mark 100 scientific achievement,
had spread in all directions until a common border with years since her birth. Tel Aviv has played a crucial role quality of life and the
neighboring cities was formed. in the evolution of our homeland, from the place of the focal point of Israeli
announcement of our independence to the central role art and culture.
Since the establishment of the State of Israel 60 years ago, she plays in economic, political and social life today. We Mayor Ron Huldai
serves as international
both the city of Tel Aviv and the country have grown in stand on the threshold of a very significant milestone
chairman of the
directions no one thought possible back then. in our history ... 100 years to Tel Aviv, 100 years to the
Tel Aviv Foundation.
fulfillment of the Zionist vision.
Today Tel Aviv’s residents number just under 400,000, yet
on any given day, 20 percent of Israel’s entire population As I reflect over our successes and even our failures, I am
can be found in the city. proud to have played a role in this journey of the Jewish
people and am proud of all my fellow Jews around the world re-birth of a nation
Tel Aviv is Israel’s economic hub, home of the Tel Aviv who have done the same. My vision and heart belong to a WEB
Stock Exchange and many corporate offices and research better Israel, to continued growth and prosperity through RESOURCEs:
and development centers. Economic activities in the our collective efforts. Tel Aviv-Yafo
city account for 15 percent of national employment. Home Page:
Furthermore, 40 percent of national employment in I truly believe that if Herzl were to see his city of Tel Aviv www.tel-aviv.gov.il/
finance and 25 percent of national employment in business within the Jewish state of Israel, he would certainly agree english/
services is in Tel Aviv. that his dream has become reality. ◆

23
 ISRAEL AT 60
Mandate for
Palestine
The Legal Aspects of Jewish Rights
Written by Eli Hertz
Between 1917 and 1947, thousands of Jews throughout the
world left their homes and moved to Palestine because they
heard that a future national home for the Jewish people
was being established there. The “Mandate for Palestine,”
an historic League of Nations document, laid down the
Jewish legal right to settle anywhere in western Palestine,
between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea,
an entitlement unaltered in international law. Fifty-
one member countries - the entire League of Nations
- unanimously declared on July 24, 1922: “Whereas
recognition has been given to the historical connection of
the Jewish people with Palestine and to the grounds for
reconstituting their national home in that country.”
The Two Most Significant Events in Modern History
Leading to the Creation of the Jewish National Home:
I. The Founding of Modern Zionism:
Benjamin Ze’ev (Theodor) Herzl
After witnessing the spread of anti-Semitism around the
world, Herzl felt compelled to create a political movement
with the goal of establishing a Jewish National Home in
Palestine. To this end, he assembled the first Zionist
Congress in Basel, Switzerland, in 1897. Herzl’s insights
and vision can be learned from his writings:
“Oppression and persecution cannot exterminate us. No
nation on earth has survived such struggles and sufferings
as we have gone through.
“Palestine is our ever-memorable historic home. The very
name of Palestine would attract our people with a force
of marvelous potency.
“The idea which I have developed in this pamphlet is a very
old one: it is the restoration of the Jewish State.
history
“The world resounds with outcries against the Jews, and
these outcries have awakened the slumbering idea. ... We
are a people - one people.”
24
top: 1920, original territory assigned
to the Jewish National Home
bottom: 1922, final territory assigned
to the Jewish National Home
Editor’s Note: In 1922, the Golan Heights
was still part of the British Mandate
and therefore included as part of the
designated Jewish homeland. In 1923,
Great Britain transferred the Golan
Heights from Mandatory Palestine to
the French Mandate of Syria under a
Franco-British agreement delineating the
boundary between the two mandates.
WEB RESOURCEs:
To see complete article with
maps please visit
www.mythsandfacts.com
“In Palestine as of Right and
Not on Sufferance ... ”
“When it is asked what is meant by the
development of the Jewish National Home
©  MYTHS & FACTS ONLINE, 2008; PINN HANS, ©  GPO-ISRAEL NATIONAL PHOTO COLLECTION
in Palestine, it may be answered that it is
not the imposition of a Jewish nationality
upon the inhabitants of Palestine as a
whole, but the further development of
the existing Jewish community, with the
assistance of Jews in other parts of the
world, in order that it may become a
centre in which the Jewish people as a above: A permit to enter
Palestine, issued during
whole may take, on grounds of religion and
the British Mandate for a
race, an interest and a pride. But in order Polish immigrant.
that this community should have the best
prospect of free development and provide
a full opportunity for the Jewish people
to display its capacities, it is essential that
it should know that it is in Palestine as of eli hertz
right and not on sufferance.” Please see previous
- Winston Churchill, 1922 bio in Jerusalem article,
page 18.
 From Modest Beginnings to a Vibrant State

II. The Balfour Declaration as it is called, is a euphemistic formula proposing the

The British Foreign Office, November 2nd, 1917
Dear Lord Rothschild, I have much pleasure in conveying
to you, on behalf of His Majesty’s Government, the
following declaration of sympathy with Jewish Zionist
aspirations which has been submitted to, and approved
by, the Cabinet.
“His Majesty’s Government view with favour the
establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish
people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the
achievement of this object, it being clearly understood
that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil
and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities
in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by
Jews in any other country.”
I should be grateful if you would bring this declaration to
the knowledge of the Zionist Federation.
Signed,
Arthur James Balfour,
©  GPO-ISRAEL NATIONAL PHOTO COLLECTION; ©  KORET PRODUCTIONS, COURTESY OF ISRAEL MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS
below: Haj Amin al-
replacement of Israel by a state, theoretically comprising
Husseini, the mufti of
the whole of historic Palestine, in which Jews will be Jerusalem who allied
reduced to the status of a permanent minority. Only this, himself with Hitler’s Nazi
it is said, can expiate the “original sin” of Israel’s founding, Regime in order to drive
the British from Palestine
an act built (in the words of one critic) “on the ruins of and prevent Jews from
Arab Palestine” and achieved through the deliberate and entering.
aggressive dispossession of its native population.
This claim of premeditated dispossession and the consequent
creation of the longstanding Palestinian “refugee problem”
forms, indeed, the central plank in the bill of particulars
pressed by Israel’s alleged victims and their Western
supporters. It is a charge that has hardly gone undisputed.
As early as the mid-1950’s, the eminent American historian
J.C. Hurewitz undertook a systematic refutation,[1] and his
findings were abundantly confirmed by later generations
of scholars and writers. Even Benny Morris, the most
influential of Israel’s revisionist “new historians,” and one
who went out of his way to establish the case for Israel’s
“original sin,” grudgingly stipulated that there was no
“design” to displace the Palestinian Arabs.
left: Jewish Communities
Lost In The War Of

Independence.
Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs ◆ During the War of
Independence, a number
of Jewish communities
were captured, mostly
1948: by the Jordanian army –
Kibbutz Beit Ha-arava
and Kalya north of the
Israel and the Palestinians Dead Sea, the four
Written by Efraim Karsh kibbutzim of Gush Etzion
Excerpt printed with permission of Commentary Magazine, May 2008 west of Bethlehem,
Atarot and Neve Yaakov
north of Jerusalem,
and the Jewish Quarter
Sixty years after its establishment by an internationally in the Old City of
recognized act of self-determination, Israel remains the Jerusalem. Kfar Darom,
only state in the world that is subjected to a constant near Gaza, was captured
by the Egyptian army.
outpouring of the most outlandish conspiracy theories
In addition, when the
and blood libels; whose policies and actions are obsessively
re-birth of a nation
War of Independence
condemned by the international community; and whose broke out at the end of
right to exist is constantly debated and challenged not 1947, the remnant of the
Jewish community of
only by its Arab enemies but by segments of advanced Hebron fled.
opinion in the West.

During the past decade or so, the actual elimination of

the Jewish state has become a cause célèbre among many
of these educated Westerners. The “one-state solution,”
➤
25
 ISRAEL AT 60

left: Armistice Lines 1949-

The recent declassification of millions of documents from 1967.
the period of the British Mandate (1920-1948) and Israel’s
In the spring and summer
early days, documents untapped by earlier generations of
of 1949, agreements were
writers and ignored or distorted by the “new historians,” signed between Israel and
paint a much more definitive picture of the historical record. its neighbors establishing
Israel’s armistice lines. To
They reveal that the claim of dispossession is not only some extent, these lines
completely unfounded but the inverse of the truth. What overlapped the borderline
follows is based on fresh research into these documents, of Palestine during the
British Mandate period,
which contain many facts and data hitherto unreported. or they were close to it,
with the exception of the
Far from being the hapless objects of a predatory Zionist Judea and Samaria region,
and the surrounding area
assault, it was Palestinian Arab leaders who from the of the Gaza Strip. These
early 1920’s onward, and very much against the wishes of lines were drawn up, on the
their own constituents, launched a relentless campaign assumption that they would
be temporary, and would be
to obliterate the Jewish national revival. This campaign replaced within a few years
culminated in the violent attempt to abort the UN by permanent borders.
resolution of November 29, 1947, which called for the
Much of the international
establishment of two states in Palestine. Had these border between Mandatory
leaders, and their counterparts in the neighboring Arab Palestine and Egypt
became the armistice line
states, accepted the UN resolution, there would have been between Israel and Egypt.
no war and no dislocation in the first place. The armistice line with
Lebanon was close to the
international border that
The simple fact is that the Zionist movement had always existed during the British
been amenable to the existence in the future Jewish state Mandate period, and
of a substantial Arab minority that would participate on overlapped it.
an equal footing “throughout all sectors of the country’s These two lines did not
public life.” The words are those of Ze’ev Jabotinsky, the Weizmann, then the upcoming leader of the Zionist correspond to the battle
founding father of the branch of Zionism that was the movement, reached a peace-and-cooperation agreement frontlines as they existed
during the cessation of
forebear of today’s Likud party. In a famous 1923 article, with the Hashemite emir Faisal ibn Hussein, the effective hostilities, and Israel
Jabotinsky voiced his readiness “to take an oath binding leader of the nascent pan-Arab movement. From then withdrew in both cases to
ourselves and our descendants that we shall never do the mandatory borderline,
until the proclamation of the state of Israel on May 14,
which became the armistice
anything contrary to the principle of equal rights, and 1948, Zionist spokesmen held hundreds of meetings with line. The armistice lines
that we shall never try to eject anyone.” Arab leaders at all levels. These included Abdullah ibn with Syria and Jordan
closely corresponded to the
Hussein, Faisal’s elder brother and founder of the emirate

©  KORET PRODUCTIONS, COURTESY OF ISRAEL MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS

Eleven years later, Jabotinsky presided over the drafting
of a constitution for Jewish Palestine. According to
its provisions, Arabs and Jews were to share both the
prerogatives and the duties of statehood, including most
notably military and civil service. Hebrew and Arabic were
to enjoy the same legal standing, and “in every cabinet
where the prime minister is a Jew, the vice-premiership
shall be offered to an Arab and vice-versa.”
If this was the position of the more “militant” faction
of the Jewish national movement, mainstream Zionism
history
frontlines.
of Transjordan (later the kingdom of Jordan), incumbent
and former prime ministers in Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, and
Iraq, senior advisers of King Abdul Aziz ibn Saud (founder
of Saudi Arabia), and Palestinian Arab elites of all hues.
As late as September 15, 1947, two months before the
passing of the UN partition resolution, two senior Zionist efraim karsh
envoys were still seeking to convince Abdel Rahman
Efraim Karsh is head of
Azzam, the Arab League’s secretary-general, that the Mediterranean Studies
Palestine conflict “was uselessly absorbing the best energies at King’s College,
of the Arab League,” and that both Arabs and Jews would University of London,

not only took for granted the full equality of the Arab greatly benefit “from active policies of cooperation and and the author of
minority in the future Jewish state but went out of its way development.” Behind this proposition lay an age-old Islamic Imperialism: a
to foster Arab-Jewish coexistence. In January 1919, Chaim Zionist hope: that the material progress resulting from History (Yale).

26

Jewish settlement of Palestine would ease the path for the
local Arab populace to become permanently reconciled, if
not positively well disposed, to the project of Jewish national
self-determination. As David Ben-Gurion, soon to become
Israel’s first prime minister, argued in December 1947:
“If the Arab citizen will feel at home in our state, . . . if
the state will help him in a truthful and dedicated way to
reach the economic, social, and cultural level of the Jewish
community, then Arab distrust will accordingly subside and
a bridge will be built to a Semitic, Jewish-Arab alliance.”
On the face of it, Ben-Gurion’s hope rested on reasonable
grounds. An inflow of Jewish immigrants and capital
after World War I had revived Palestine’s hitherto static
condition and raised the standard of living of its Arab
inhabitants well above that in the neighboring Arab
states. The expansion of Arab industry and agriculture,
especially in the field of citrus growing, was largely
financed by the capital thus obtained, and Jewish know-
how did much to improve Arab cultivation. In the two
decades between the world wars, Arab-owned citrus
plantations grew sixfold, as did vegetable-growing lands,
while the number of olive groves quadrupled.
No less remarkable were the advances in social welfare.
Perhaps most significantly, mortality rates in the Muslim
population dropped sharply and life expectancy rose
from 37.5 years in 1926-27 to 50 in 1942-44 (compared
with 33 in Egypt). The rate of natural increase leapt
upward by a third.
That nothing remotely akin to this was taking place in the
neighboring British-ruled Arab countries, not to mention
India, can be explained only by the decisive Jewish contribution
to Mandate Palestine’s socioeconomic well-being. The British
KLUGER ZOLTAN, ©  GPO-ISRAEL NATIONAL PHOTO COLLECTION
authorities acknowledged as much in a 1937 report by a
commission of inquiry headed by Lord Peel:
The general beneficent effect of Jewish immigration on
Arab welfare is illustrated by the fact that the increase
in the Arab population is most marked in urban areas
affected by Jewish development. A comparison of the
census returns in 1922 and 1931 shows that, six years
ago, the increase percent in Haifa was 86, in Jaffa 62,
in Jerusalem 37, while in purely Arab towns such as
Nablus and Hebron it was only 7, and at Gaza there
was a decrease of 2 percent.
From Modest Beginnings to a Vibrant State
Had the vast majority of Palestinian Arabs been left to
their own devices, they would most probably have been
content to take advantage of the opportunities afforded
them. This is evidenced by the fact that, throughout
the Mandate era, periods of peaceful coexistence far
exceeded those of violent eruptions, and the latter were
the work of only a small fraction of Palestinian Arabs.
Unfortunately for both Arabs and Jews, however, the
hopes and wishes of ordinary people were not taken into
account, as they rarely are in authoritarian communities
hostile to the notions of civil society or liberal democracy.
In the modern world, moreover, it has not been the poor
and the oppressed who have led the great revolutions
or carried out the worst deeds of violence, but rather WEB
militant vanguards from among the better educated and RESOURCEs:
more moneyed classes of society. For the complete
article with
So it was with the Palestinians. In the words of the annotated
Peel report: footnotes
please visit: www.
“We have found that, though the Arabs have benefited commentarymagazine.com
by the development of the country owing to Jewish
immigration, this has had no conciliatory effect. On below: A miniature
the contrary . . . with almost mathematical precision the train taking the workers
from their camp to the
betterment of the economic situation in Palestine [has] “Sdom” Potash Factory
meant the deterioration of the political situation.” ◆ in the Dead Sea.
re-birth of a nation
27
 ISRAEL AT 60

The Holocaust and the Establishment of Israel

Written by Dr. Robert Rozett

left: The Yad Vashem

It is often said that a straight line runs from the Holocaust Candelabra is a memorial
to the establishment of Israel. The reasoning for this is light for the six million
that the former ended in 1945 and the latter came about Jews who perished in
the Holocaust. The
just three years later. Some see the creation of the state of candelabra is the symbol
Israel as a kind of consolation prize to Jews for suffering of Yad Vashem, and it is lit
through the gargantuan murder. Others have expounded every year on Holocaust
Martyrs’ and Heroes’
theological and even eschatological explanations for this
Remembrance Day.
connection. Such conjectures are well beyond the scope
of historical inquiry.

Commonly it is asserted that the nations of the world

voted for the partition of British Mandatory Palestine
between Arabs and Jews, paving the way for the Jewish
state, because they felt sympathy toward the Jews and not
a small measure of guilt in the wake of the Holocaust.
Although this might be true to a certain extent, the
most crucial support given Israel did not derive from
such motivations. The support given by the Soviet bloc,
imperiously led by the notorious murderer and anti-Semite
Joseph Stalin, derived purely from realpolitik. Stalin’s WRITTEN BY dr.
backing rested chiefly on his hope to introduce an element robert rozett
of instability in the region, a Jewish entity amidst a sea of Dr. Robert Rozett is
Arab opposition, and then use it for his own purposes. the Director of the
Like a significant segment of his electorate after the war, Yad Vashem Libraries,
author of Approaching

U.S. President Harry S. Truman personally seemed to
have sympathy for Jewish national aspirations, but his
support included other and more decisive factors, chiefly
America’s desire to forestall open conflict in Palestine
between Jews, Arabs and the British, who controlled
the country. Courting the pro-partition element in the
electorate also contributed to Truman’s stance.
At the start and finish of the recently renovated Yad
Vashem Holocaust History Museum, a black-and-white,
somewhat grainy film clip appears. A large group of children
in the town of Munkachevo, today a part of the Ukraine,
are singing the Jewish national anthem, Hatikvah (The
Hope). In the first presentation they are part of a video
art display by Michal Rovner that evokes aspects of Jewish
life before the Holocaust. At the end of the museum they
history
©  COURTESY OF YAD VASHEM THE HOLOCAUST MARTYRS’ AND HEROES’ REMEMBRANCE AUTHORITY
the opportunity, since, along with their families, they were the Holocaust, Texts
ruthlessly murdered in the Holocaust. and Contexts, published
by Vallentine Mitchell,
2005. He was co-
This is perhaps the leading tie between the Holocaust and
editor of The Holocaust
the founding of modern Israel. The Zionist enterprise
Frequently Asked
gained momentum at the dawn of the 20th century and
Questions, Yad Vashem,
by the time the Second World War had broken out, over 2005 and co-editor
600,000 Jews resided in Mandatory Palestine. Across the of Encyclopedia of the
face of Europe, scores of thousands more eagerly awaited Holocaust, Facts on
an opportunity to move to the vibrant Jewish enclave. File published by Yad
They were thwarted, however, by miserly immigration Vashem, 2000.
quotas set by the British to appease Arab opposition to
the Jewish national home. Perhaps hundreds of thousands
WEB
more, although not yet ready to make such a move,
RESOURCEs:
considered immigration an alternative, especially in light

appear in the display about the establishment of the state of the generally deteriorating situation for Jews in much Yad Vashem:
of Israel. It is clear that almost all of the children who of Europe during the 1930s and into the war itself. The www.yadvashem.org.il/
aspired to come and live in the Jewish homeland never had unfolding events of the Holocaust brutally crushed this

28
 From Modest Beginnings to a Vibrant State

left: A monument at
Yad Vashem to the
millions of Jews who
were murdered in the
death camps, resembles
the barbed-wire fence
that surrounded the
camps. A closer look
reveals that this fence is
made of twisted bodies,
screaming soundlessly to
the heavens. An identical
sculpture stands on
the site of the Dachau
concentration camp.
Below: An exhibit at
Yad Vashem, National
Memorial and Museum of
the Holocaust, showing
what Jewish life had been
reduced to.

option, leaving only the surviving remnant at the end of

the war the possibility of fulfilling their wishes.

Among those who survived the Holocaust, many voiced

a desire to reach the shores of Palestine, while they took
the first steps toward rebuilding their shattered lives.
The Bricha (escape) movement sought to bring tens of
thousands of Jewish survivors to European ports and from
there set sail for the Land of Israel. But as long as the
British remained responsible for the Mandate, such boats
were intercepted and their passengers generally taken to
Cyprus to languish in internment camps until 1948. In the
©  COURTESY OF YAD VASHEM THE HOLOCAUST MARTYRS’ AND HEROES’ REMEMBRANCE AUTHORITY

decade following the declaration of Israeli independence,

some 250,000 Jews who had suffered through the years of
Nazi hegemony and murder on European territory – or
had fled eastward into Soviet Asia – reached Israel’s shore.
Tens of thousands more decided to join the fragments of
their families in other places, but still remained profoundly
attached to the fledgling state.

The contribution of Holocaust survivors and their

descendents to Israel is incalculable. In every field of
human endeavor, they made their imprint. On a different
level, the impact of the Holocaust on Israel has been re-birth of a nation
immense. Our ongoing measures to study, teach about and
commemorate the events of the Holocaust play a pivotal,
although far from exclusive, role in Israeli consciousness.
It would be wrong to try to understand contemporary
Israel only through the prism of the Holocaust, but any
attempt to understand Israel without taking into account
its influence would be equally off target. ◆

29
 ISRAEL AT 60

Israel’s Declaration of Independence

An Assessment After 60 Years of Statehood
Written by Professor Emanuel Gutmann, Hebrew University

This declaration, the first official document of the then
newly created State of Israel, is even today of unique
significance. Not only did it formally declare the
independence of the State and the establishment of its
(temporary) governmental institutions, but it also contains
a brief list of the fundamental elements of human and civil
rights, which were to become the guiding principles for
the new state, that includes (almost) all those basic values
and norms without which no free society is imaginable.
The exultant and yet solemn tone of this groundbreaking
document is all the more remarkable if viewed against the
historical circumstances of its adoption: a raging civil war
with the Arab population of Palestine and the imminent
invasion by the armies of all Arab neighboring – as well
as of more distant – countries, with, at that moment of
time, quite uncertain results.
The text of the declaration can be seen as being composed
of eight discernible sections and clauses, quite unequal in
their respective lengths, plus the list of its 37 signatories
(12 of whom could not be present at the actual signing
ceremony, most of them for security reasons). These
sections are the following:
unavoidable lesson from the Holocaust of the necessity
to renew Jewish independence; 6.the legal and illegal
immigration into Eretz-Israel of Holocaust survivors; 7.
the contribution of Jews in Eretz-Israel to the Allied war
effort against the Nazis, a contribution which created
their right to belong to the nations which had established
the United Nations; and finally 8. The November 1947
U.N. resolution that recognized the irrevocable right of
the Jewish nation to establish a state of its own.
II. The normative section, which claims the right of
the Jewish nation, like that of all other nations, to its
independent, sovereign state. This section asserts that
this is a “natural” right, and as such as not depending on
the willingness of other states or that of international
organizations, although their declaratory support is
appreciated, as well.
III. The declaratory section, which proclaims the creation
of the State of Israel. This one-sentence section is,
operationally, the most significant part of the declaration.
Besides the announcement of the very fact of the coming
into existence of the state, this section also for the first
time named it by its name, “Israel” and/or “State of Israel” below: David Ben

I. The historical section in which the factors on which the (both versions appear in the text). This name was at that Gurion reading the
Declaration of the
claims of the Jewish people to a state of its own in Eretz- time quite innovative, and even surprising, yet it was Independence of Israel in
Israel (Palestine) are enumerated. This quite lengthy undoubtedly the most appropriate choice. the Museum in Tel Aviv.

KLUGER ZOLTAN, ©  COURTESY OF GPO-ISRAEL NATIONAL PHOTO COLLECTION

first third of the declaration surveys in concise terms
the historical connections of the Jews over generations
and millennia, in factual terms, declaratory statements
and with a strong sense of longing. More specifically, this
section singles out what are perhaps the eight key parts
of this relationship of the people with its land: 1. the
political, cultural and religious formation of the Jews into
a nation in Eretz-Israel and its independence there; 2. the
incessant hope of the nation to return to its homeland; 3.
the actual, continuous waves of aliya (immigration), the
settling in the country and the longings for independence
there; 4. the path breaking Balfour Declaration of 1917:
history

the first international recognition of the historical

connection between the Jewish people and Palestine
and the right to establish there its national home; 5. the

30

IV. The institutional section. Here, after a brief mentioning
of the exact day and hour of the beginning of independence,
the establishment of the central organs of government is
announced, namely the Temporary State Council, which
became the legislature, and the Temporary Government,
i.e. the executive. These were to be superseded by regular
organs after the coming into effect of a constitution.
V. The constitutional clause, which promises the speedy
adoption of a constitution. It stated that the constitution
should come into effect not later than October 1, 1948,
that is to say, within 3½ months from the date of the
declaration. However, to this day, Israel has no (formal)
constitution. Instead, most, but certainly not all, matters
which are ordinarily included in a constitution have by now
been enacted as so-called “basic laws,” which do not have,
however, with minor exceptions, constitutional preference
or judicial review power. Great efforts have been made
over the years to bring to an end the final adoption of a full
constitution, but so far these efforts have been unsuccessful,
primarily because of serious disagreements over matters of
human rights and legal equality, individual and collective.
VI. The section of principles, which are earmarked to
become the guidelines for the public norms in the newly
above: Official created state. From an educational and normative point-of-
Gazette publishing the view this section may well be seen as the most important
Proclamation of the State part of the declaration. Actually it is quite brief, yet it is
of Israel on May 14, 1948.
most comprehensive and conveys all that needs saying in
below: New immigrants, well-chosen keywords, each one of which stands for wide-
survivors of the ranging situations and behaviors. Thus this section foresees
European Nazi camps
after their arrival at the and promises that Israel will be based on liberty, justice
Atlit Reception camp. and peace in accordance with the visions of its prophets
KLUGER ZOLTAN, ©  COURTESY OF GPO-ISRAEL NATIONAL PHOTO COLLECTION
of old; shall practice
full social and political
equality of rights for all
its citizens regardless of
religion, race and gender;
and promises freedom
of religion, conscience,
language, education and
culture. Furthermore,
the state will be open for
Jewish immigrants from
all corners of the globe,
will actively be engaged
in the development of the
country for the benefit of
From Modest Beginnings to a Vibrant State
all, will protect the Holy Places of all religions and shall be
loyal to the principles of the U.N. Charter. Likewise, Israel
will be ready to cooperate with organs and representatives
of the United Nations in the implementation of the
November 29, 1947, U.N. resolution and the creation of
an economic union in the whole of Palestine (as envisaged
in that resolution).
Two observations are warranted here: it should be clear
that these visions and promises are based both on Jewish
as well as universal values, of which equality and freedom
are the most prominent, and that besides far-reaching
attention to individual rights, provisions are made to
institute and safeguard collective rights in matters such as
religion, culture and education. It should be obvious that
in this regard the authors of this declaration had primarily
the Israeli Arab population in mind.
VII. The appeals section, containing calls for peace and
collaboration to the Israeli Arabs, Israel’s neighboring
states, the Jewish people abroad and the UN. These
calls are directed to one domestic factor and a number
of foreign ones. The domestic factor is the Israeli Arabs,
and the appeal to them makes it quite clear that Israel is
a Jewish state with a sizable Arab minority, and the call
for peace and participation in the building of the state is
tied to the provision of full and equal citizenship, which
means first and foremost proportional representation in
state institutions. Calls for peace and good neighborly
relations are addressed to all neighboring states and their
inhabitants, and include Israel’s readiness to contribute its
share to the development of the Middle East. One should
be aware that these calls for peace and collaboration were
made at the time when the invasion of the Arab armies
into Israel started, with the express intention on their
part to prevent Israel’s coming into existence, and after
six months of Arab-initiated intense violence against the
Jewish community in then Palestine. A further call was
directed to the UN, to accept Israel as a member-state;
this was acted upon only a year later. Finally all Jewish
communities in the Diaspora were called upon to support re-birth of a nation
Israel by way of immigration and nation-building in its
effort to achieve the age-old goal of national redemption.
VIII. The invocative clause with its appeal to the “Rock of
Israel.” The last part of the declaration, the signatures, is
opened by this clause, which had been its most controversial
one. Most of the religious signatories were dissatisfied by
➤
31
 ISRAEL AT 60

the term “Rock” as synonym for God, while others would

have preferred not to have any reference to him, by whatever
term. At the end, a compromise prevailed, with the text
staying as stated. Perhaps it should be mentioned that after
the signing the ultra-orthodox signatories declared their
dissatisfaction with the declaration’s spirit and letter.

Sixty years later, there is no gainsaying that by and large

Israel has been faithful to a considerable extent to the
lofty ideals expressed in its declaration of independence.
Indeed, much has been done to put them into practice.
One rather formal and yet quite significant proof of this
is contained in an early ruling of Israel’s Supreme Court,
which stated, inter alia, that although the declaration is
not a constitutional law, inasmuch as it “expresses the
nation’s vision and its beliefs, it is our obligation to heed
the principles declared therein when we are to interpret
and give meaning to the laws of the land.”
One crucial term, which for unaccountable reasons does
not appear in the text of the declaration, is “democracy”
or “democratic”, perhaps because it seemed so obvious to
its drafters to be superfluous. Whatever the reason, this
obvious omission was rectified years later when the phrase
“the values of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state” were
used in the opening paragraphs of two basic laws, one of
which is entitled “Man’s honor and his liberty” and the
other “freedom of occupation.”
Altogether, in view of the dismal record in these matters
in not a few states around the world during all these years,
not to speak of almost all the countries in Israel’s closer or
Israel’s quite remarkable economic development with its above: The Jubilee Chimes
consequential considerable average rise of the living standard performance at Givat
Ram, Jerusalem, in honor
has also given rise to the ever-growing income differentiation of the 50th Independence
between rich and poor, bigger than in most other developed Day of the State of Israel.
countries; although by and large the processes of absorption
of the very substantial waves of immigrants have been a
considerable success from most points of view, one would
have expected more widespread satisfactory achievements
by some of these groups; the Arab population of Israel, in
spite of the impressive progress it can show for many years,
has still to be considered as being discriminated against in
more than one way, which is not an uncommon feature in
many bi- and multi-ethnic or multi-cultural democracies;
women’s equality, although guaranteed by one of Israel’s

AMOS BEN GERSHOM, ©  COURTESY OF GPO-ISRAEL NATIONAL PHOTO COLLECTION

wider vicinity (the latter presenting, in the eyes of most
Israelis, no acceptable comparison, anyway) and taking
into account some of Israel’s domestic difficulties, as well
as its rather precarious geopolitical location – which make
its recourse to measures which nowadays are subsumed
under the name of defensive democracy unavoidable -- this
state of affairs seems to be a not inconsiderable feat.
Notwithstanding all these considerations and concurrently
with the admiration expressed by numerous observers in
view of the above, criticisms, some more severe than others,
have been expressed about all kinds of developments that
in the eyes of these critics have not been partially or fully
history
first laws, is annulled in matters of marriage, divorce and
some other family affairs by the same law; and freedom
of religion, which nowadays is commonly comprehended
as including freedom from religion, is indeed largely
implemented but not without considerable exceptions.
The democratic character of the state demands not only
meticulous observation of legal and other dimensions of
equality and all kinds of freedom, as promised in the Israeli
Declaration of Independence, but also of their mutual
dependence. There is little likelihood to achieve freedom emanuel
without considerable equality, as well as the obverse. Yet gutmann
hardly any modern state around the world fully fulfills these Emanuel Gutmann is

in accordance with the text and/or spirit of the declaration. demands of what one can call the ideal type of democracy, Professor Emeritus
Here we mention briefly only a few of these, as factual and Israel presents no exception to this observation. But it of Political Science at
presentation, without any attribution of blame or accusation: can certainly be considered to be one of the better ones. ◆ Hebrew University.

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